Top 13 Favorite Movie Endings Part 2
Spoiler Warning: This list will contain spoilers The Truman Show (1998) This is definitely one of the most underrated movies ever. I don't really care for Jim Carrey in his comedic roles but time has shown us again and again that when he is placed in serious movies such as "The Number 23" and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", he does an exceptional job. This movie is another example. This movie is about a man named Truman Burbank. His entire life is broadcasted on a tv show, but he's not supposed to know about it. Throughout the movie, he begins to grow suspicious after a series of bizarre instances. Eventually, he takes a boat and attempts to escape. The creator of the show tries to stop him but he decides to let him discover the truth on his own. Then his boat hits the wall surrounding the city and he breaks down crying as he thinks he's trapped there forever. He then finds a staircase and is about to escape, but the producer tries one last time to convince him to stay. After thinking for a bit, he delivers his catch phrase "In case I don't see you - good afternoon, good evening, and good night" and he then leaves the show for good. This is a very heartbreaking scene and the ending is what made me decide that this would be one of my favorite movies ever. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" is a classic film which is most famous for the onscreen battles between Randle McMurphy and Nurse Ratched. This was a film which was both uplifting and disheartening. After a man is admitted to a mental institution, he grows attached to many of the patients inside it. The place is run by Nurse Ratched who we grow to despise throughout the film. One of the patients believed to be deaf and dumb, Chief Bromdem, reveals to McMurphy that he lied to everyone so that he can deflect attention. Eventually, Nurse Ratched pushes another member of the institution, Billy Bibbit, to his breaking point and he commits suicide. Enraged, McMufphy nearly chokes Nurse Ratched to death until he is knocked out. Upon returning back, Chief believes that they can now escape together. However, Chief then realizes that he has lobotomy scars on his forehead. Unwilling to allow him to live in such a state, he smothers him with a pillow. He then lifts the hydrotherapy console off the floor and uses it to break the window and escape. The last shots show him running away from the asylum and the movie ends. This scene always gave me chills and it's both happy and tragic. It's a perfect conclusion to this film. Whiplash (2014) Some may find it odd that I'm putting a new movie above "Citizen Kane" and "The Shawshank Redemption" which are both much more famous. However, I can't resist. I just enjoyed this movie's ending more. That's all. Andrew Neiman is an ambitious drummer who applies at Shaffer University. But he finds out that the jazz teacher, Terence Fletcher, is very abusive towards his students. Eventually, Neiman loses control and attacks Fletcher causing himself to be kicked out of Shaffer because of it. Many months later, he meets Fletcher and he agrees to participate in a festival concert. However, Andrew discovers that he was not given sheet music for the first song they were playing and messes up on it. Embarrassed, he begins to walk away but he then comes back and interrupts with the aggressive drum solo of "Caravan". What follows is one of the best drum performances you will ever see. It is guaranteed to engage you like anything else. After the credits rolled, I was instantly shocked. I was completely blown away by this film's ending and I personally found it to be more tense than most other action scenes from movies. This is a modern movie but an excellent one at that and "Whiplash" is one of the best movies that I've ever seen. Man With a Movie Camera (1929) Nowadays, this movie is often considered to be one of the best movies from the silent film era. This film was pretty revolutionary when it came out. it pioneered different film techniques such as split screens, jump cuts, slow motion, time-lapses, and Dutch angles. It contains many great trick shots. This is a documentary which shows what an average day in a Soviet town would look like. It contains many gorgeous shots of city-life and it represents the film techniques well. But at the ending, the movie suddenly becomes more upbeat and engaging. Just before the ending, it shows a stop motion clip showing a camera mount on its tripod and "crawl" away. Then it begins to show all of the trick shots and camera techniques it displayed earlier in the film and the movie plays jazzy music in the background. After the music stops, it shows us a close-up shot of the shutters of a camera closing signifying the end of the movie. Surprisingly, I actually found this scene to be very great and it really got me even more into the movie. I thought that it was a very engaging scene. Throughout the movie, I felt that a few parts were a bit boring and the movie did lose my attention a bit. But when the ending came, my attention immediately snapped back on and I could tell that the director put most of his effort on that scene. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) Like "The Truman Show", I feel that this is a pretty underrated movie also. It may not be as good as "The Truman Show" but this is definitely a film which flew under the radar. This movie focuses on the relationship between the notorious outlaw "Jesse James" and "Robert Ford" and it focuses on the events which led up to the killings. After a while, the relationship between Robert and Jesse starts to fall apart and Robert Ford shoots Jesse James and kills him so he can get a bounty of $10,000. However, people soon dislike how Robert Ford shot him with his back turned and he is labeled as a coward by many people around the country. At the end, very well-written narration explains that Edward O' Kelly murdered him when he was in a saloon. The narration describes 2 tragedies in the film. The tragedies are that Robert Ford regretted killing Jesse James and the other one is that Robert Ford was forgotten after his death. Even though it is revealed that Robert Ford is going to be shot and killed before it actually happens, the narration at the end still makes for a pretty emotional and memorable scene which sticks with the viewer long after watching it. The scene when Jesse James get shot is also pretty memorable, but this scene is the best one because it's really heartbreaking and it has great narration. Well, we are now down to the top spot. I've seen many superb endings to movies before. Some are happy, some are tragic, some are unnerving, some are engaging, and some are just brilliant. I have definitely seen some fantastic finales to films but in my experiences, one movie rises above them all by a whole lot. Honestly though, it really wasn't hard to find a number one at all. After I finished watching the movie at number one, it kept me thinking about the meaning behind its ending days after watching it. In my opinion, its ending is one of the greatest scenes in all of cinema history. So what can possibly be at the number 1 spot? What is my favorite movie ending of all time? It is... Apocalypse Now (1979) Apocalypse Now was directed by Francis Ford Coppola. He was the same guy who directed The Godfather Part I and II. Apocalypse Now is another famous film by him and it is also often considered to be one of the greatest movies ever made. This movie has several iconic scenes. The Napalm strike, the intro explosion, and the classic quote "I love the smell of Napalm in the morning" are very iconic scenes but they don't quite come close enough to topping the movie's conclusion which is handled masterfully. There was really nothing else that could have topped this. The ending is a very iconic scene and it was handled real well. Five soldiers in the Vietnam War are sent into Cambodia to assassinate a renegade colonial. Along the way, two of them die. When the three remaining soldiers reach the island, Captain Benjamin L. Willard is subdued, Colonel Walter E. Kurtz drops the severed head of Chief Quartermaster George Phillips on his lap indicating that there will be no airstrike. Shortly afterwards, Willard is allowed to wander the camp. That night, as the villagers prepare to ceremonially slaughter a water buffalo, Willard sneaks up to Kurtz and kills him with a machete. Just before he dies, he whispers "...The horror...the horror...". All the villagers bow down to Lance as he walks out with a bloody machete. They allow him to take the other crew member, Lance B. Johnson, and lead him to their boat so they can escape. As they sail out, Kurtz's final words echo eerily in his head as the movie fades to black. Everything about this scene is magnificent. The song "The Doors - The End" is well-written and it perfectly fits the mood of the scene. The meaning behind the quote "...The horror...the horror..." has been discussed for years and people have discussed the meaning behind it. Some people even say that the explosion scene near the beginning of the movie actually shows the village being bombed after they left it. Whatever your interpretation to the film is though, it is still a perfect conclusion and I have never seen anything like its ending which made me think about its meaning days after viewing it. because of this, it gets the number one spot on this list. Did I miss a great movie ending? What are your favorite movie endings? Leave your choices in the comments. I enjoy reading them. Read part 1. Category:Movies Category:Top X